Communitech is expanding its reach in the Waterloo community with the official opening of the Communitech Data Hub. The project was developed along with founding partners CIBC, City of Waterloo and Quantum Valley Investments.

The 19,000-square-foot facility, housed in a former police station, will be home to startups, scaleups, data scientists and enterprise partners pursuing data-driven innovation. In addition to offices and collaborative spaces, it features data-specific special interest zones ranging from artificial intelligence and machine learning to quantum computing and the Internet of Things.

It’s also home to Canada’s Open Data Exchange (ODX), a private-public partnership focused on providing access to open data for commercialization purposes.

Kevin Tuer, vice-president of strategic initiatives for Communitech, says the data hub is an extension of Communitech’s mandate in a data-driven world. “We’re not necessarily collecting data, but collecting companies that want to work with data. Industry recognizes that when it comes to data, a lot of value is being left on the table. The true value of data is the information you can unlock from it.”

Tremendous opportunities can come from creating a facility dedicated to data-driven solutions, he adds. “We are the only organization in Canada focused on the commercialization of open data. That data in the hands of entrepreneurs can provide new resources for building new products and services, and arm enterprises with whole new sets of valuable information.”

Companies joining the Data Hub will work on projects ranging from next-generation networks to space-data usage. “The power of the hub will be in the diversity of the companies that are here to learn from one another,” Tuer says. “Cross-pollination is what really drives innovation at an exponential level.”

Peter J. Thompson / National Post

One of the first entrepreneurs to set up shop at the Hub is SkyWatch, creators of a platform that aggregates the world’s free and commercial satellite data to develop simple APIs (application programming interfaces) for developers. The satellite data can be applied to a wide range of industries from industrial and agricultural to financial services and energy.

“A lot of customers use our platform to analyze data on a large scale, predict crop yields, track the movement of goods and services, and even buyer behaviour,” says CEO James Slifierz. “We simply provide the discovery and access to data to make it easy for companies to build applications on top of it.

The Communitech Data Hub is part of the larger plan of defining what the region is really good at,” he says. “We already have the Perimeter Institute [for Theoretical Physics] that’s doing world-leading research in quantum computing, and the Institute of Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo.”

Slifierz also sees it as an opportunity for people from different areas to come together and share insights around machine learning and artificial intelligence. “Data is not just created on the web anymore. It’s collected through drones, wearables, IoT devices and satellites. Next generation businesses will be facing the challenge of how to bring those different data sources together to extract intelligent decisions.”

The common thread for all involved at the Data Hub is the quest to leverage insights from data. “There are people working on solving problems for smart cities, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, virtual reality – in all these areas you need to pull in lots of different data types,” Slifierz says. “These companies are working on solving meaningful problems, like water management, logistics, and even shopping, by leveraging different data sources.”

Slifierz sees the Communitech Data Hub as more than an opportunity to be with like-minded people solving the same problems. “It’s also a great recruitment tool for people who want to be in a cool environment, working on cutting edge problems, surrounded by cutting edge thinkers. It could spark some tremendous opportunities in the region.”